This blog is dedicated to progressive and liberal thought. It also discusses new technology, how technology affects privacy and developments in Russia, China, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Rightardia fully supports the rights of workers to organize, the feminist movement, and all Americans regardless or ethnicity, sex or gender.It uses humor, satire and parody to expose conservative thought for what it truly is: BS! Rightardia contributes to the DNC, DCCC, DSCC and MoveOn.Org.

Rightardia read the editorial in the St. Petersburg Times and LtSaloon also picked it up. Dionne addresses the cause of the Civil War which was the containment of slavery in the Old South.

This year will be the 150th anniversary of this terrible war in which 618,000 Americans died.

James McPherson, a civil War historian has noted that Confederate President Jefferson Davis, a major slaveholder, “justified secession in 1861 as an act of self-defense against the incoming Lincoln administration.” Davis said:

Abraham Lincoln’s policy of excluding slavery from the territories would make “property in slaves so insecure as to be comparatively worthless . . . thereby annihilating in effect property worth thousands of millions of dollars.

The big concern of Southerners was that slavery would not be extended in to the new territories that the US was purchasing or annexing. Lincoln never said that he planned to abolish slavery. His strategy was to contain it.

However, as the Union forces advanced into the Southland, Lincoln abolished slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 to quicken the end of the war.

The vice president of the confederacy, Alexander H. Stephens said this on March 21, 1861 in Savannah, Georgia during his Cornerstone Speech:

African slavery as it exists amongst us the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the "rock upon which the old Union would split." He was right . . .

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition . . .

With us, all of the white race, however high or low, rich or poor, are equal in the eye of the law. Not so with the negro. Subordination is his place. He, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system . . .

We hear much of the civilization and Christianization of the barbarous tribes of Africa. In my judgment, those ends will never be attained, but by first teaching them the lesson taught to Adam, that "in the sweat of his brow he should eat his bread," and teaching them to work, and feed, and clothe themselves . . .
Jefferson Davis didn't start talking about State's Rights until after the Civil War ended. Of interest, the CSA Constitution had the same federal supremacy clause that the US constitution contains. Alexis de Tocqueville commented on slavery in the United States in 1835.

When I contemplate the condition of the South, I can discover only two modes of action for the white inhabitants of those States: namely, either to emancipate the Negroes and to intermingle with them, or, remaining isolated from them, to keep them in slavery as long as possible . . .

All intermediate measures seem to me likely to terminate, and that shortly, in the most horrible of civil wars . . .

The ancients kept the bodies of their slaves in bondage, but placed no restraint upon the mind and no check upon education; and they acted consistently with their established principle, since a natural termination of slavery then existed, and one day or other the slave might be set free and become the equal of his master.

But the Americans of the South, who do not admit that the Negroes can ever be commingled with themselves, have forbidden them, under severe penalties, to be taught to read or write; and as they will not raise them to their own level, they sink them as nearly as possible to that of the brutes.

We agree with EJ Dione. We hope the GOP will be smart enough to avoid spinning he 150th anniversary of that terrible war. The historians will be waiting for them with their long knives if Republicans try to bull shit about the real causes of the Civil War.

Filmmaker Jamie Stuart in Queens, shot the footage during the snowstorm on the night of December 26.

The snow storm has been called Michael Bloomberg's Katrina. Bloomberg is trying to blame the city's municipal union.

Meanwhile, Chris Christie, the Governor of New Jersey, is vacationing as Disney World in Orlando while his Lt. Gov. is in Mexico. Christie was aware of the storm's potential before he went on vacation.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee has launched a new campaign bashing New Jersey Governor for his prolonged absence during the crises.

For affluent Americans outraged by the fiscal and social consequences of extending the Bush tax cuts handed to them by President Bush that were recently extended for two more years, a trio of Ivy League academics has furnished a way for them to put their money where their mouth is.

Their new website, giveitbackforjobs.org, invites high-income Americans to calculate the value of their tax cut using computations based upon the adjusted gros income of the affluent taxpayer. The taxpayer can then pledge to donate that money directly to charities.

The site says encourage "fairness, economic growth, and a vibrant middle class."

The site doesn't accept contributions directly, but links users to the charities.

In this special edition of West Wing Week, it looks back over the last year, watch the President sign a law getting those loud TV ads under control, and find out the answers to a couple burning questions from the mailbag.

The US Supreme Court's striking down of nearly a century's worth of campaign finance laws means the US government can now be "bought" and the country may be headed for fascism, says an outgoing Democratic House representative.

In an interview this week, Rep. John Hall (D-NY), who lost his seat in the mid-term elections, told the New York Observer that he sees a threat to American democracy in the court's ruling.

I learned when I was in social studies class in school that corporate ownership or corporate control of government is called fascism. So that's really the question -- is that the destination if this court decision goes unchecked?

The Citizens United decision ended decades of campaign finance regulation. Corporations, unions and other groups can now spend unlimited amounts on political campaigns without having to identify themselves.

The US is refusing to help Poland investigate claims of a secret CIA prison, which allegedly operated in the country between 2003 and 2005.

­Warsaw prosecutors have spent the past two years looking into the supposed hidden facilities.

Washington's refusal to help was reported by a Polish news agency just days after a Palestinian terror suspect claimed he had been secretly shipped to the country and tortured in one of the prisons.

The US Department of Justice informed Warsaw that they would not provide legal assistance in this case since it may endanger national security and state interests. However, the request is classified, as well as the investigation.

The refusal by the American authorities does not definitely mean that the investigation in Poland will not lead to an explanation of this issue, believes Irmina Pacho, the co-ordinator of the Helsinki Human Rights Court's CIA observation program.

“It all depends on the materials gathered by the prosecutor, which may include serious proof and evidence,” she said.

According to international reports, and information well-known in the public domain, it is not only Poland that hosted a secret prison, but also Romania and Lithuania, added Pacho.

“There is definitely a need to conduct investigations in this matter in Europe, since as the events in 2010 show, the American courts are willing to close their door to victims of the problem,” she told RT.

This report indicates the UK was also involved in the secret detentions. Egypt was another country that operated a secret prison for the US.

In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent a second day Tuesday fielding questions about his administration’s slow response to the Christmas weekend blizzard.

Across the river in New Jersey, Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s team is struggling to explain how both the governor and his second-in-command, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, ended up on out-of-state vacations at the same time. The blizzard was predicted and it was no surprise to the Garden Staters.

In his film (Astro)Turf Wars, Taki Oldham secretly recorded a training session organized by a right wing libertarian group called American Majority. The trainer, Austin James, was instructing Tea Party members on how to "manipulate the medium". This is what he told them:

"Here’s what I do. I get on Amazon; I type in "Liberal Books". I go through and I say "one star, one star, one star."

The flip side is you go to a conservative/ libertarian whatever, go to their products and give them five stars. ... This is where your kids get information: Rotten Tomatoes, Flixster.

These are places where you can rate movies. So when you type in "Movies on Health care", I don’t want Michael Moore’s to come up, so I always give it bad ratings.

I spend about 30 minutes a day, just click, click, click, click. ... If there’s a place to comment, a place to rate, a place to share information, you have to do it. That’s how you control the online dialogue and give our ideas a fighting chance."

Over 75% of the funding for American Majority, which hosted this training session, comes from the Sam Adams Alliance.

In 2008, the year in which American Majority was founded, 88% of the alliance’s money came from a single donation, of $3.7m(13). A group which trains right wing libertarians to distort online democratic processes, in other words, was set up with funding from a person or company with a very large wallet.

Rightardia has reported that a right wing ring used Digg to downgrade progressive and liberal articles. Rightardia has been harassed on Usenet by conservative activists that have tried to portray us as a gay blog. We even received a threat to attack our office.

We had to block anonymous posts because we getting posts with profane content-less insults. Many of these conservatives appear to post from Dallas, TX.

We have also traced some emails and Usenet posts to certain cities in Arizona as well. One histrionic conservative even posts from the Netherlands to conceal his identity.

TALLAHASSEE – The Sunshine State not only ranks at the top for unemployment and foreclosures, it’s also at the top for forgetting its children.

Thanks to legislative inaction last year, the state is poised once again to forfeit tens of millions of dollars from the federal government set aside for enrolling uninsured children in the popular KidCare program – a federal/state health care program for which parents pay a nominal fee.

“It’s appalling to me that the Legislature is allowing millions in tax dollars – Florida’s tax dollars we sent to Washington – to slip through our fingers,” said Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich (D-Weston).

“Our state already ranked 49th in the country in the number of uninsured children, and that was before the unemployment disaster and housing fiasco. How much more do our children have to suffer?”

Legislation sponsored last year by Senator Rich that would have brought Florida into federal guidelines that qualify the state for additional federal dollars available for more than 700,000 uninsured children.

According to the Florida Child Healthcare Coalition, KidCare could have benefited from a generous increase in federal match under the 2009 Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Reauthorization Act.

There were also performance bonuses created under the measure for states that streamline enrollment.

But because SB 2082. the bill Rich sponsored, was never passed, Florida doesn't meet the federal criteria that would streamline enrollment of uninsured children in the CHIP/Kidcare programs.

As a result, the state is currently barred from even competing for the bonuses. Meanwhile, other states which launched aggressive efforts to target and enroll uninsured children will reap the $206 million bounty . . .

Neighboring Alabama, with an unemployment rate at 9% – three points lower than Florida’s staggering 12% – is poised to receive $55 million under CHIP.

Women will be especially hard hit if Congress approves any cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Doug Cunningham reports.

The National Organization for Women President Terry O’Neill says because women are at a disadvantage when it comes to pensions, they will suffer more than men from any social security cuts.

O’Neill: These proposals to cut social security really will push hundreds of thousands of women - middle-class women - into poverty.

Women are almost twice as likely as men not to have pensions in their retirement. Why is that? Well, because they’re far more likely than men not to work in union jobs. And union jobs are very much jobs that provide pensions.

The gender pay gap also adds up to disproportionate pain for women as they retire.

O'Neill: Women are also far more likely than men to head into their retirement years without savings. When you work a lifetime with unequal pay you have a hard time socking away money for your own retirement.

Corporate tax rates have actually gone down as well. So the blueprint talks about ways to get our tax system back in balance and more fair.

Looks can be deceiving. Carlson tried to get Keith Olbermann fired by impersonating Olbermman in an email. Carlson sent the following fake email to Olbermann's boss:

“Dear Stu,

Since you’re obviously a moron, I won’t waste your time or mine writing more emails you clearly can’t understand. But I do want to correct one of the numerous errors of fact in your email: Phil Griffin did not suspend me. He doesn’t have the power or frankly the courage to do so. Once I had been (very) temporarily relieved of my duties by NBC management, Phil got on the phone to some of your fellow idiot TV columnists and tried to claim credit.

As if.

I could have Phil Griffin fired tomorrow if I felt like it, trust me. And if he keeps yapping about me in public, I may. For the moment, however, keeping Phil around is like having a drunk chimp in the office — more amusing than threatening.

Feel free to correct the record in your ‘column.’

KO”

Recently, Carlson also suggested that Michale Vick should be executed for the dog fighting enterprise that Vick served time for.

We don't think Carlson's recent comments or attempt to undermine Keith Olbermann were very Christian. Do you?

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Dave Camp will begin his 11th term in Congress as the chair the House Ways and Means Committee. He is another Republican who wants to reform the US income tax code. Republicans have been doing this since the Reagan era and the tax code hasn't gotten any simpler.

What camp really wants to do is change the tax tables as have other Republicans. He would like a top rate to be 25 percent - three points lower than Ronald Reagan achieved in 1986 . . .

Camp is also concerned "that 46.7 million earners pay no income tax at all. Most of these people are at or below the poverty level and most of them live in the Red States.

In addition, 143 million tax returns were filed that had no tax liability. Rightardia also noted that during Hurricane Katrina, a thriving underground economy exists in the Gulf states.these people don't even file income tax most of them will will be on welfare as seniors.

These tax scofflaws will have to use Medicaid and Social Security Income (SSI) when they retire because they will not have 40 quarters of FICA payroll tax to qualify for normal Social Security or Medicare.

Gulf coast fisherman were unable to be reimbursed by BP during the gulf oil spill because they had no 1040s or W2 forms to document wages.

According to Camp, "Free-riding people have scant incentive to restrain the growth of government they are not paying for with income taxes."

Rightardia suspects that Camp will get nowhere with his "tax reform" ideas. Obama would surely veto any bill hat cut taxes for the affluent. Such a bill is unlikely to be successful in the Democratic senate as well.

Every three years, The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conducts its Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests of the reading, math and science skills of 15-year-olds in developing and developed countries.

And the U.S.A.? America ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math. Rightrdia had reported on the OECD education study earlier.

Buchanan explained the lack of US exceptionalnism in racial terms by quoting a white nationalist site (vdare.com) that broke out performance by race. Vdare called Mexico, the "principal feeder nation for U.S. schools."

It implied that Hispanics and blacks dragged the educational performance of the nation down, but admitted Asians outperformed whites, but that white Americans did better than all of the other "white nations" except the Finns.

Buchanan should know better than this. Keep in mind, too, that the Republican Party has been fiddling with US education for more than one decade with Edison schools, charter schools and vouchers.

Rightardia is inclined to believe teachers would provide more fertile round for improving education that right wing "education experts."

This suggest that progressives and liberals have more integrated brains. This study is one of several that suggests there are genetic, brain and perceptual differences between left and the right wingers.

Professor Rees said that although a brain scan could not predict someone's stance simply from a scan, there was "a strong correlation that reaches all our scientific tests of significance".

"The amygdala is a part of the brain which is very old and very ancient and thought to be very primitive and to do with the detection of emotions. The right amygdala was larger in those people who described themselves as conservative.

Janean Garofalo talked about the limbic brain of right wingers several months ago the Keith Olbermann show:

You tell them (the Tea Baggers) the truth and they become -- it's like showing Frankenstein's monster fire. They become confused, and angry and highly volatile . . . because (of) their limbic brain . . . (T)he limbic brain inside a right-winger or Republican or conservative or your average white power activist . . .is much larger in their head space than in a reasonable person, and it's pushing against the frontal lobe. So their synapses are misfiring . . .

Rightardia has noted most right wingers like Rush Limbaugh use arguments that are high in emotion an low in content. This study could also explain why right wingers are religious. Christianity has high emotional content with its belief in divine birth, miracles and resurrection.

The DCCC today named incoming Representative Joe Walsh (IL-08) the Hypocrite of the Week for his populist campaign against the status quo in Washington.

This weekend Joe Walsh declared that government takes "care of too many in the middle class" and this weekend’s revelation that he hired a Wall Street lobbyist to be his Chief of Staff.

This weekend: Walsh says that government takes "care of too many in the middle class" and he hired a chief of staff -- a Capitol Hill veteran who has lately been a financial services lobbyist.” [New York Times, 12/26/10]

"It’s looking like Representative-elect Joe Walsh sold out the middle class before he even got sworn into Congress," said Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

When Joe Walsh says that government has done too much for the middle class it must warm the heart of his Wall Street staff and special interest donors – but it leaves Illinois families out in the cold. Walsh ran his campaign to stand up for the middle class and but has already sold them out and that is what makes Joe Walsh the hypocrite of the week.

Rightardia has pointed out that the GOP is a master of class warfare. Republicans has convinced many people, who should know better, that codling the affluent is good for the middle class.

The Huffington Post | Nick Wing Posted: 12-28-10 02:50 PMDemocrats are attacking New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for his decision to leave NJ and remain on his Disney World vacation even while his state digs out of a massive snow storm. Compounding the criticism is the fact that

Every year around the holidays, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts selects and celebrates individuals who have, through their lifetime achievement in the arts, contributed to enriching and enhancing culture in America.

On December 5th, 2010, the Kennedy Center Honors 33rd Annual National Celebration of the Arts was held and videotaped for a television broadcast, which aired last night on CBS.

Before the event at the Kennedy Center, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hosted a reception for this year's recipients in the East Room of the White House.

Watch this video which features behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the honorees at the White House - Paul McCartney, Oprah Winfrey, Merle Haggard, Bill T. Jones, and Jerry Herman.

The event opened with a tribute to Oprah that was excellent. Rightardia was most interested in the Paul McCartney tribute because the Beatles were truly one of the greatest bands of the past century.

The highlight of the evening was the No Doubt tribute to Paul McCartney.

Gwen Stefani and her band mates performed the Beatlessongs “Hello, Goodbye” and “Penny Lane.” The band presented themselves with a distinctive English "clean cut" look with bleached close cropped hair and grey outfits reminiscent of the Beatles.

As the US heads into a New Year real economic recovery remains out of reach for millions of U.S. workers. Doug Cunningham reports.

AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka says the disconnect between Washington politicians and working families is dangerous and alarming.

The labor federation is once again calling for a serious job creation program.

Nicole Woo, Domestic Policy Director at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, says there’ a budget blueprint plan that would mount a serious jobs investment program along with other changes needed to put America back to work.

Her original Twitter dispatch read: "Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn't it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heart.

"I pressed an F instead of a P and people freaked out," said this media freak, pointing out that her blunder was the second-most-searched word on Google trends. "Make lemonade out of lemons," said the fame whore.

President Obama and the First Lady wish families across the country a “Merry Christmas” and encourage everyone to support the troops and their families this holiday season. Visit www.serve.gov to find ideas for what you can do to help our servicemen and women and their families.

In the January 3, 2011 edition of The Nation, Eric Alterman argues that conservatives have a story and progressives do not.

[I]f you ask most Americans what conservatives believe will fix whatever is wrong with America at any given time, they can give you a simple, coherent response: lower taxes, less government, more “freedom.” It may be wrong. It may benefit only the rich. But it is easy to understand and repeat, particularly when billions of dollars have been invested to make it appear plausible.… Liberals do not appear to address potential solutions with anything like the far right’s aura of God-given self-confidence.

What could the progressive story be?

it should center around the expansion of the middle class, international peace, improved education and opportunity for the middle class America, a right-sized government that can control the deficit and a democratic approach to big national issues like health care and senior care.

The government should should use pragmatism to improve the country, not ideology. There should be the recognition that Americans must be competitive to maintain its "exceptionalism.

Indeed, Americans need more freedom that has both an economic and political basis. There should be a recognition that our history is based on the efforts of both the government and private enterprise.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Facing budget gaps and an aversion to (new government) debt . . ., states and local governments are slapping residents with an array of new fees—and some are applying them to nonprofits.

That marks a sharp departure from long-standing tax exemptions mandated by state law or adopted on the theory that churches, schools and charitable organizations work alongside governments to provide services to the community . . . (and are therefore exempt form from such fees.)

The issue is on display in Houston, where some flood-prone roads are in such disrepair that signs warn drivers, "Turn around, don't drown."

Houston's taxpayers in November narrowly voted to adopt a "drainage fee" to raise at least $125 million a year toward the cost of improving roads and storm-water systems.

The city will charge fees to property owners, and it won't grant exceptions to churches, schools and charities.

The city has been tightening its budget. "We're cutting up the city's credit cards," says Mayor Annise Parker. "Everyone who contributes to drainage issues has to share in the cost of correcting those issues."

A number of groups—including schools, businesses, churches and senior citizens—are demanding exemptions. "We'll defeat this," says David Welch, of the Houston Area Pastor's Council, who plans to lobby state legislators in January. This is really a tax. It is the first time that churches would not be exempt from property taxes. Some opponents have filed suit claiming the ballot wording was misleading.

At a group called the National Council of Nonprofits, Tim Delaney, chief executive, says:

Governments are taking their public burdens and putting them on the backs of nonprofits, at a time when the demand for our services is skyrocketing.

Some cities are charging religious groups property taxes on buildings no longer used for worship. Other localities are soliciting voluntary contributions. Albany, N.Y., recently passed an ordinance asking schools, hospitals and other nonprofits to contribute to city services.

In Minneapolis, residents recently began paying a street-light fee that also applies to nonprofits . . .

Drainage fees that apply to nonprofits have been adopted by cities that include Richmond, Va.; Lafayette, Ind.; and Verona, Wis.

Such fees are emerging now because the federal government has been cracking down on how cities handle the rain that rolls off roofs, parking lots, and other impervious surfaces, sometimes causing floods and ripping up roads.

The runoff can collect debris, oil and other pollutants and ultimately drag it all into the nation's waterways.

. . . In 2010, municipalities accused of violations paid $5.3 billion in repairs, a nearly four-fold increase from 2009. Those settlements ranged from Kansas City, Mo., with $2.5 billion in fixes, to Revere, Mass., which agreed to spend $50 million on repairs.

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that cities and towns need to spend more than $250 billion over the next five years fixing crumbling storm systems.

Rightardia thinks these fees make perfect sense, particularly for churches that have abused their tax exempt status for years while preaching right wing politics from the pulpit. The Catholic church is an example of a church that holds huge real estate assets in the US.